Oteil Burbridge

How do you guys feel about Oteil Burbridge? His playing never ceases to amaze me.His sense of melody and harmonic depth in his solos is pretty much without peer in my opinion.Feel,tone,speed,
Groove, hes got it all.
happy holidays and peace

He's so much more impressive live than he is on CD (as if that isn't impressive enough ). He is very melodic, he can play very harmonic "vertical" jazz solos, and let's not forget that he can groove very hard (which is very noticeable live). I would say that he's got to be my favorite player today.

I was lucky enough to roadie for a band that opened for the Allman's when he joined. The guy is a MONSTER. One night he was sitting backstage with his bass figuring out Little Martha with a guy for the band I worked for. That night he played it in his solo spot. Dickie Betts came on stage and just stared at him.
It was fun to watch him play all the old ABB stuff on a Mexi Jazz strung with flatwounds and played with a pick.

If you saw him at an ABB show, he was trying to be faithful to Berry Oakley's sound on the old material. I respect him a lot for that...he's honoring those that came before him, even though he's a bass god in his own rite.

Actually, to be absolutely true to Berry's sound, you'd have to get something modeled after "The Tractor"....a J bass with a Guild humbucker crammed in it. I got to play that bass once...it's basically a torture device.

Most anything by Aquarium Rescue Unit would be a fine choice, especially "Mirrors Of Embarrassment". Pick any tune on that cd and you'll get a good taste. These might be hard to find, though, since the band broke up years ago and lots of their stuff is out of print.

He also had a solo album out for a while, called "Love Of A Lifetime". I believe you could only get that through his website.

Originally posted by JimK There's a tune called "Plain Or Peanut" from ARU's 3rd album(?) that totally wipes me out.

Click to expand...

In A Perfect World. I lent that one out and never got it back, and now it's out of print. Great album. Oteil's bass line in the verses of "Stand Up People" is incredible. I was laughing in amazement the first time I heard it.

Originally posted by Dave Siff I was laughing in amazement the first time I heard it.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Dave for reminding me about the title(bummer that you 'lost' it; if I had a burner, I'd help ya out!).

I used to stand there & laugh & shake my head back when Oteil played in my best friend's bar band(The Squares). So, I used to ask my friend, "How can you play next to the guy & not just laugh out loud"?!
Granted, it was only a Top-40 band, but, I guarantee you've never heard "This Is My Night"(Chaka Khan), "The Bird"(The Time), or Sussudio"(Phil Collins) played like THAT!(among others).
...and to top it off, Billy Drummond was the drummer in this band!
Things have not been the same since those guys split!